No great violence would be done by considering all the above forms as races of one species, the characters separating _iliaca_ from the rest being of no great importance. However, in the large series examined, there is no specimen of _iliaca_ at all aberrant, and none approach in the slightest degree to any of the other forms. There can be no doubt whatever of the specific identity of the three forms presented under section “B,” as is plainly shown by specimens of intermediate characters. These western forms are parallels of the western race of _Melospiza_; _schistacea_ representing _M. fallax_, _megarhynchus_ the _M. heermanni_, and _townsendi_ the _M. guttata_ or _rufina_. Passerella iliaca, SWAINSON. FOX-COLORED SPARROW. _Fringilla iliaca_, MERREM. “Beitr. zur besond. Gesch. der Vögel, II, 1786-87, 40, pl. x.”—GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 923.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 58; V, 512, pl. cviii.—IB. Syn. 1839.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 139, pl. clxxxvi. _Passerella iliaca_, SW. Birds, II, 1837, 288.—BON. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 477.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 488.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 285.—SAMUELS, 325. _Fringilla rufa_, WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 53, pl. xxiv, f. 4.—LICHT. Verz. 1823, No. 248. _Fringilla ferruginea_, WILSON, Catalogue, VI, 1812.—Hall’s ed. WILSON, II, 255. “_Emberiza pratensis_, VIEILL.,” GRAY. [Illustration: _Passerella townsendi._] SP. CHAR. General aspect of upper parts foxy-red, the ground-color and the sides of neck being ashy; the interscapular feathers each with a large blotch of fox-red; this color glossing the top of head and nape; sometimes faintly, sometimes more distinctly; the rump unmarked; the upper coverts and surface of the tail continuous fox-red. Two narrow white bands on the wing. Beneath, with under tail-coverts and axillars, clear white, the sides of head and of throat, the jugulum, breast, and sides of body, conspicuously and sharply blotched with fox-red; more triangular across breast, more linear and darker on sides. Sometimes the entire head above is continuously reddish. First quill rather less than fifth. Hind toe about equal to its claw. Length, 7.50; wing, 3.50; tail, 2.90; tarsus, .87; middle toe, without claw, .67; hind claw, .35. HAB. Eastern North America to the Mississippi, to the north along valley of the Mackenzie, almost or quite to the Arctic coast, and down the valley of the Yukon to the Pacific. Breeds throughout the interior of British America. In summer, the ash is more predominant above; in winter, it is overlaid more or less by a wash of rufous, as described above. The young plumage we have not seen. The _P. obscura_, Verrill,[9] may be referrible to it.